A bit more of Paris...

After sorting through the photos on the portable hard drive to write my last post, I thought that I would write a bit more about our few days in Paris last April. DH had done all the organising and accommodation bookings for most of that big 7 week holiday, but used a package offered by Flight Centre for flights. The package took care of our flights to London with accommodation for a few days and our homeward bound flight was to be from Paris. This of course dovetailed perfectly with our plans to travel to Villers Bretonneux  for ANZAC day.

Our hotel in Paris that was part of the Flight Centre package, was beautiful and best of all, the staff were so friendly and helpful. They also spoke excellent English and other than 'Merci', DH didn't really need his schoolboy French  :-)
From the hotel, we only had to stroll a very short distance up to the corner...on this corner was a shop...for the first day or so, this store was closed and shuttered...we thought it must have closed down. But on the second day we arrived back to the area in the late afternoon, and saw the shop was open and the windows were filled with the most amazing food...and heaps of people were in the shop!

The Boulangerie on the corner

 Not only French pastries etc, but lovely salads, quiches and baguettes filled with the most yummy looking ingredients! We did buy some food from here, both savoury and some not so healthy...but we were in Paris after all! lol

Just a few steps away from this shop was a set of stairs leading down to a railway station ; it was so convenient to our hotel.

But for one tourist attraction we didn't need to use public transport...
Walk a few hundred metres from that bakery and we were at the Arc de triomphe...how impressive was that! So now, 'come take a stroll' with DH and I up to that Arc...

If you looked up the 'address' of the Arc, it would say 'Place Charles De Gaulle....

Renovations???....

Beautiful and detailed sculptures...

I have a fascination with the traffic on the 'roundabout' (Place Charles de Gaulle) which circles the Arc de triomphe...it looks absolutely chaotic as several lines of traffic drive around, with motorists weaving in and out the lines of traffic...'heart in the mouth' stuff! lol

When we were here with an organised tour in 2008, DH took lots of photos of the 'inside' of the arch, showing all the campaigns of  Napoleon...this time, he took a few pics of the 'outside'. 

 The 'eternal flame', surrounded by floral tributes for the fallen...

A large flag flying here...

Looking from the Arc de triomphe along the Champs Elysees

 Some of that traffic that I described...

Transport at a slower pace...wonder what's it's like to pedal that around the Arc de Triomphe...

There are pedestrian tunnels under the arch and the road. The entry to where you can climb lots of stairs to the top of the Arc de triomphe, is in this subway...but the queues that afternoon were incredibly long, so we passed on that. So off we set to stroll down the Champs Elysees...

 See the Maccas? (McDonald's)

We saw this sort of 'invitation' in a few places in Paris...prestige cars you could rent for a drive...tempting? Not really...remember that traffic! lol

 DH popped in to the Citroen store...

We were so fortunate to be 'in the right place at the right time'...I love mounted police horses...and this one posed for a photo :-)

Our next stop on this afternoon of sightseeing was the Eiffel Tower...but that can wait until another time when I will merge our 2 visits (on either side) to this icon. In 2008, we went up in the lift, as being on a group tour, the tickets were organised and there was the minimum of queuing.

An afternoon 'with' Napoleon....

In my last post I wrote about our busy Sunday here in Brisbane. Well for something completely different I am now going to write a post about an afternoon in late April this year, when DH and I visited the Les Invalides in Paris.  This national war museum is huge and in the hours that we spent there, we only saw a small fraction of the collections. This was late in our holiday and I notice that we didn't take anywhere near the number of photos that we took earlier on our trip.

The museum consists of a number of buildings which were used as a home and hospital for aged and unwell soldiers. Louis xiv designated the buildings for this purpose way back in 1670. Of course its role is now a museum which houses so much French military history. It is also the burial place of French war heroes. 

We came to this museum to see the 'resting place' of this famous Frenchman...his statue is there between the columns...

You can see that gold covered dome from all around...note the lovely details on the building in the foreground...

Warning: Lots of sarcophagi photos! lol

Oh and statues too, of course! lol

The building which is described as the chapel...looked more like a small cathedral!

DH had told me about a very impressive resting place which he knew was in one of the large and ornate buildings in this museum... in the next photo I'm standing at a circle of magnificent marble looking down several feet below at a sarcophagus made of red marble...I'm stunned at the size of this object!

Yes! It's Napoleon's tomb...what a resting place he eventually got!

We then took the stairs to get down to the level that the sarcophagus was on...

 DH looks like he's standing right near it...but he's behind a barrier of white marble, some metres away...

We spent a while just looking at this behemoth of a coffin/sarcophagus...then off we went to marvel at more of the opulence in this place...

Look how tiny the people look!

 I loved the stained  glass windows which featured 'long hexies' shapes :-)

 And so many marble coffins...

 Two views of the celebrated Foch's grave...

Another Napoleon...Jerome Napoleon!

Napoleon had proclaimed himself Emperor thus starting a dynasty I guess...

And yet another one! Joseph Napoleon...who was Napoleon 1's brother crowned King of Naples by his famous brother.

In another part of the museum, we saw full sized mannequins dressed in the various army uniforms that were worn over the centuries of wars and campaigns. These were behind glass so decent photos were difficult to get...but there were so many...the French must have been continually at war for centuries! lol

Here is one poor photo but it gives an idea of what I was describing.

There were many, many paintings of battle scenes and  individual portraits, such as this one of Napoleon...

And one diorama which,was a mock up of Napoleon's 'quarters' during battle, caught my interest. Don't you just love his hat! lol...And the writing desk that was obviously carried around on his campaigns!

Yet another section had displays of weapons, including vehicles...

DH and I spent hours in this fascinating place and I also had a wonderful time in the gift shop there :-) 

I've heard of Manic Mondays, but last Sunday was pretty 'full on' too!

Last Sunday St Francis Day, patron saint of animals, was celebrated. Both churches in our Parish had a Blessing of Pets Service where parishioners brought their pets to church! At St James we had LOTS of dogs, a cat, a guinea pig and some fish. 

Father Bruce wore a special stole made from 'dog' fabric...

After lots of thought I decided not to take Eduardo, as at 13, he gets a bit stressed being kept in the pet carrier. Instead I walked up with my iPad with a photo of Eduardo. Father Jack laughed when I gave him Ed's full name...Eduardo Felipe...now that's not funny is it? Lol

After church we went off home and got ready to go to the theatre. We had tickets for the afternoon performance of Spamalot. DH wore his Spamalot t-shirt purchased in London 2008. 

We went with DsD2 and her husband and we all thoroughly enjoyed the show...the stars of the show all worked so well together. Mind you, I suspect that a lot of adlibbing went on! 

Then it was home again to start preparations for the BBQ. DH organised family members to come over to watch the NRL football Grand Final. 

My brother was in charge of cooking...as per usual! 

My SiL brought the dessert...a watermelon cake! It was basically a thick slice of watermelon minus the skin; decorated with strawberries and topped with yoghurt and blueberries...it was delicious and no guilty feelings after eating a slice. :-)

As there were no Queensland teams in the final, we cheered for the underdogs...who had not won a Grand Final in 43 years. And South Sydney won! Good on them...great effort! 

31 days of decluttering update...and a bit of wishful thinking.

I've continued to work on this project off and on, but not as focussed and determined as perhaps I should could have been, due to a few other things happening. Luckily I didn't say at the onset that it would be 31 consecutive days, lol! 

So...the medications storage box was checked but after a big clean out earlier this year, there wasn't much to declutter. I also keep the packet of Eduardo's flea treatment in that box and seeing it reminded me that he was due to have a drop or two on the back of his neck, much to his disgust! 

I removed 2 bags of rarely worn clothes from my wardrobe and sent them off to the charity bin at the local school. Lifeline gives the school a small commission cheque for every load they take from the bin, so that's a win win in my estimation. 

One morning I tackled my bedside table which had become piled up with half read magazines and finished novels?? The magazines and the novels all went to the Lifeline bin as well. Another morning I tackled the tea towel drawer, which means I 'jumped' a number of days...I just felt like doing that! lol. Well that drawer was an eye-opener! I actually iron my tea towels so that they fit nicely into the drawer...so they were neat...but some of them had seen much better days! There were a number which had holes in or were thin or frayed...I now have some nice 'new' rags in the laundry ready for those 'dirty' jobs. The next declutter area will be kitchen utensils...another scary area! (well perhaps admittedly not as scary as the yarn and fabric stashes' areas) 

Sometimes I hear people joke about having a place like Dr Who's Tardis to store craft stashes...just imagine how much you could fit in that thing! 

A little while ago, a knitting friend of mine did some 'jiggery pokery' to show how she stores her yarns! lol

Last month I wrote a couple of posts about the day that DH and I went to the Museum of London and the British Museum. Well after we left the British Museum we were just walking through the streets and we stumbled across another UK icon...the BBC building...
We just walked in the door...

In the foyer was this bust of Henry Wood, the first conductor of the Proms which was taken over by the BBC in 1927...

In the foyer we noticed a sign about tours of the building, so we enquired at the counter in the foyer...you had to have booked a tour, but once again the Aussie accent helped. The lady kindly suggested that we proceed down the hall to the room where the bookings office/booth was and enquire if there were any vacancies that afternoon.
 Now to go into the room where we could enquire if there were any vacancies ,you had to go through a security check...so jackets and vests off, bags and knapsacks ready to be scanned and wait in line for a check just like at the airport. When we were allowed to go to the bookings booth we found there were 2 vacancies for a tour in 3 hours...DH declined and we walked back to the entrance. Despite feeling that our every move was being observed, and that armed SAS officers could emerge at any time, I got DH to take my photo with some BBC props...one near the bookings booth and one in the hallway outside...

Goodness! Even a Dalek is taller than me! 

A little while ago I found Soma's blog and became an email follower. Soma is so generous with her free patterns including a section devoted to Dr Who. My DsD1 is a big fan of Dr Who and has in the last year become a quilter...so guess whose link I sent her! :-)
I think there is little chance of ever finding a Tardis so I had better plan to keep decluttering and to keep sewing and knitting to use my lovely stash items.

The 'men in white coats' came last week...

Hmmm...well maybe it was more like 'men in white overalls'... :-)
And it wasn't to my place that they came, but to the 2 houses across the road...

The houses that are each being replaced by 7 townhouses...
But these 50s era houses are mostly lined with fibro sheets or asbestos sheeting...

So there are strict protocols that have to be followed to firstly remove and dispose of that fibro...there are a number of specialist firms that remove asbestos from sites. Workers wear overalls, special masks and usually sheets of heavy plastic are hung up in rooms where the asbestos sheeting is being removed, to contain any dust/airborne fibres.

Here's one 'man in white overalls' checking out the first house...there would be fibro in the eaves' lining...

A little while later he's really getting stuck into the front of the property, while his workmates can be heard inside, removing walls etc...
Note his mask to protect him from possible breathing in of fibres...

Between the trailer and the house is a very large skip...it is lined with heavy black plastic...

All the removed asbestos was placed in this skip and a worker hosed each lot as it went in...keeping the fibro wet helps prevent the fibres becoming airborne...
When the houses were emptied of all fibro, the black plastic liner in the skip was sealed up ready for a company which specialises in safe disposal/containment of asbestos, to take it away.

The skip is gone and the house waits its fate...

 A few people have asked me how I feel about all these developments. I guess I take the attitude now that it's going to happen and yes there will be noise, dust and dirt etc. But the completed new houses and units already in the street are quite aesthetically pleasing...they may be tiny little boxes but they have good street appeal. So far, all the new neighbours in the street are very quiet...I guess they are so busy going to work to earn money to pay the $2000 per month rents! lol

The Summer Themed Mini Quilt Swap cont...

The person chosen to receive a mini from me was Noela and as I know it has arrived at her place, I am now going to reveal what I made. 

I used a Craftsy Pattern that I had noticed earlier this year, and put it in my wish list. When I started wondering how I would interpret the topic, I came up with quite a few ideas but nothing in particular. Then one day, just out of the blue, I remembered the stitchery pattern on Craftsy...it was a little vintage caravan. Now even though my parents always rented a house for beach holidays or we went to my godparents' farm in the country, I still associate caravans with summer and summer holidays. 

So I purchased Jodie Rackley's pattern and traced the design on to some off white homespun during FNwF last month. I purchased some lovely 'cloud' fabric for the border but as I worked the embroidery I realised that the cloud fabric 'would not work'...but some caravan fabric that I already had would work quite well instead...so...the finished mini, using the 'Retro Camper' design.

I used cloud fabric on the binding and a lighter cloud fabric as the backing. 

Thank you to Cheryll for organising this fun swap of 3 mini quilts this year.